CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
Randy knocked on Rachel’s door but got no reply. He knocked harder and heard a faint voice. He was worried that something might have happened to her and was just about to try to open the door when she opened it and said, “So I had a good night’s sleep. Sue me.”
“Good night? Good day is more like it,” Randy kidded.
“It’s only nine o’clock and I slept like a baby, thanks for asking.”
“So how did you sleep last night?” Randy replied glibly.
Rachel punched him on the shoulder.
“I hope they have room service, I’m starved.”
“They do but it’s a little slow. You might want to head on down to the dining room and get breakfast there,” Randy said.
They walked to the dining room and Randy had set up the camp stove and had made Cinnamon rolls by fashioning an oven out of heavy foil he had found in the kitchen.
“Wow. What a treat. Remind me to tip the Chef,” she said.
“The Chef has a tip for you. Eat and let’s get our butts on the road,” he said, scarfing down one of the rolls.
“Where to?”
“I think we will just head south and see what we can find. I walked across the street to the gas station and got a Pennsylvania map. It has some of the larger mines on it so we can try to find those first.”
“Sounds like a plan. I can eat these in the Jeep,” she said picking up the whole pan of rolls.
“If it doesn’t bother you, it doesn’t bother me. I really want to see if my theory about being underground is correct.”
“Then lead the way,” she replied.
They got in the Jeep and Rachel licked her fingers as she finished another roll. They drove south on I–79. Randy had decided they would stay on the Interstate until they were thirty or forty miles outside of Pittsburg before he would turn off on the smaller roads in search of mines.
“I swear it's brighter today. Is that the sun?” Rachel said, pointing off to her left.
“I think it’s trying to peek through. The clouds seem much thinner and less dark. It’s been getting like that a little more each day.”
“Boy, would it ever be nice to actually see it come out. I was beginning to think we might never see it again.”
“I had some serious doubts too,” Randy confessed.
“Hey, look at that sign. It says Waynesburg Mining Company,” Rachel said pointing excitedly.
“Outstanding. There is an exit up ahead, I’ll take it and let’s see if we can find this place,” Randy said.
A half mile further up the road, Randy turned the Jeep onto a well maintained two lane road. Another sign pointed them to the west informing them that the Waynesburg Mining Company was three miles down the road.
“Now look. When we get there I want you to stay in the Jeep. If anyone is there I don’t know exactly what will happen or how they will react.”
“What do you think they will do?”
“I doubt they will do anything but I just want to be ready just in case,” he said.
They drove the next three miles in silence. When they got to a large gate that announced they had reached the Waynesburg Mining Company, Randy stopped the Jeep.
“What?” Rachel said, confused.
“I’m going to take the trailer off and make sure all the guns are ready. I want you to rack a bullet in the chamber of the Beretta and one in the shotgun as well.”
“Randy, we aren’t going to have to shoot anyone are we? I mean, I doubt I could actually do that,” she stammered.
“Yes you can and yes you will, if you have to. I doubt it will be necessary and I am certainly hoping for the best but if push comes to shove I will be prepared and I want you to be also,” he said while lowering the wheel on the tongue of the trailer.
He disconnected the safety chains and unplugged the lights. He almost broke out laughing. What the hell did he need lights for? No one was going to run into the back of him anytime soon.
“Rachel, are you ready?”
“I doubt it,” Rachel said.
“You need to get ready. Mentally. Keep your gun in your lap and the shotgun beside you. Just follow my lead. When I get out I want you to just slide over into the driver’s seat and watch. If anything happens to me I want you to take off like a bat out of hell. Don’t stop for anything.”
“I won’t leave you,” she insisted.
“Yes, you will. You go. Get out of here and head back to Indiana or wherever you think you need to go. Do not stop, do not pass go and do not collect two hundred dollars. Just hightail it out of there and don’t look back.”
“Randy…”
“Stop. It has to be this way or else I leave you here with the Jeep and walk in.”
She looked at him for a long moment. He was right but could she really just drive off and leave him?
“Rachel?”
“Okay. But if there is any safe way to get to you I’m going to try.”
“Fine. As long as you get out of here if it all goes to hell, you can’t do anything to help me at that point. Hell, this is all just an exercise in futility anyway. I’m not really worried about what we may find I just want you to be prepared.”
“I understand. I’ll do what you say,” she said at last.
“Good. Here we go,” he said, putting the Jeep in gear.
They drove off the two lane highway and onto a gravel road. It wound back for several hundred yards before they came into a large clearing where several buildings stood. Randy estimated that there were at least forty cars in the parking lot. A bulldozer was sitting next to a large pile of coal. Randy drove to the edge of the parking lot and wheeled the Jeep around so it was pointed back the way they had come in.
“I’m getting out. You slide over here and get the shotgun and your Berretta ready. Leave the engine on and keep it in gear. I’m going to see if anyone is here.”
“You be damn careful,” she said as he started to walk toward the largest building and turned a corner.
Randy had gone about twenty feet when a voice shouted, “Hold it. Stop where you are.”
Randy froze.
“Drop the gun and put your hands up” the man said.
Randy laid the shotgun down carefully over the toe of his shoe.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Randy Boling. I’m from Indiana. I’m trying to locate other survivors. You’re the first person I have encountered since leaving home,” Randy said.
“Indiana? How did you get here?”
“Jeep. It’s just around the corner behind me,” Randy yelled back.
“Nothing works. No cars are running.”
“Yes they do. You just have to find the old ones built before all that computer stuff they put on them today. The Jeep is a 1974 and it runs fine. I tried newer cars and nothing works.”
“And you came here to this particular place looking for others?”
“No, I was just heading south out of Pittsburg and going to mining companies and see if anyone survived.”
“Survived what?”
“Hell if I know. But I happened to be underground when whatever it was took place and I just had a hunch that it was what saved my ass. I got to thinking that maybe others survived as well and so I started looking. I stumbled on this mine because of the sign on I-79. I decided to give it a try and here I am. Seems like I was right. How many of you survived.”
“Never mind that for now. Is anyone else with you?”
“Nope. I’m by myself. Like I said, you’re the first person I even talked to since I survived.”
“And you don’t know who is responsible for all of this?”
“Not a clue. I can tell you that I found no one all the way across Indiana and Ohio. Cars are all over the place but no people.”
“Go ahead, you can put your hands down but keep them where I can see them,” the man ordered.
Randy lowered his hands.
“Look, can we talk? I came here to see if others survived, not to get shot.”
“Alright young man,” he said and stepped out from behind a dump truck.
“Gees, you can’t imagine how good it is to see and talk to another person,” Randy said.
“You must have had one hell of an adventure getting this far.”
“It has been an interesting experience. You are…?”
“Ben Carter. I’m the day foreman for the mine.”
“Ben,” Randy said, holding out his hand.”
Carter shook it and lowered his shotgun. Ben had a weathered look to his face and it was impossible to guess his age. Randy was aware that Ben was probably much stronger than he was. He had one of those long lanky bodies that hid his real muscle mass. Randy definitely didn’t want to have to tangle with this guy.
“So, do you have any idea what happened?” Ben asked.
“Not a clue really. The only thing that makes sense, if you can call most of the population just vaporizing making sense, is that it was too big to be something as simple as terrorists.”
“No one around here survived,” Ben said sadly.
“Or anyplace else that I can determine so far. How many are here?”
“Forty-one. Well, actually thirty-six now. Some took off. Went back home and never came back.”
“But thirty-six of you stayed?”
“We have all been home at one time or the other but most of us just came back. We have almost everything we need here and it’s sort of a comfort to have others around.”
“Look, I lied to you earlier,” Randy confessed. Ben’s hand on the shotgun tightened.
“Yeah?”
“I have someone with me. I wanted to make sure it was safe before we both came waltzing in here.”
“They armed?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I guess I would have done the same thing. I would want someone to cover my back if the roles were reversed.”
“Do you have any women here?”
“Why?”
“Just curious,” Randy replied.
“Nine.”
“Nine women? How did they survive?”
“Like the rest of us.”
“You have women miners?”
“Why not?”
“I guess I just thought that…”
“Yeah, lots of people think that. Two of them weren’t miners but happened to be in the shaft when the shit hit the fan,” Ben informed him.
“Well I’m both glad and surprised,” Randy replied.
“Where is your friend?”
“In the Jeep, just around the corner.”
“Tell him that he might as well join us. Everyone is over at the canteen except for the two covering my back,” Ben said.
Randy laughed, “I thought that would be the case. I would have done the same thing if someone just suddenly showed up.”
Ben turned and held up a fist and two men emerged from behind barrels.
“Boys, this is Randy. I forget your last name,” Ben said.
“Boling. Randy Boling. Hi guys,” Randy said holding out his hand.
They both shook it but neither lowered their weapons.
“You want to go get your friend?” Ben asked.
“Sure. You can come along.”
“We were going to,” Ben replied simply.
The four of them walked around the corner to where Rachel was waiting. She had the shotgun resting on the back of the Jeep’s seat.
“It’s okay,” Randy said as they got near the Jeep.
“You sure?”
“Yep.”
Rachel lowered the shotgun but kept the Beretta on her lap.
“Why, that’s a woman,” Ben said.
“Good eye. She’s a woman,” Randy confirmed.
“That’s why you asked about women. You were trying to see if it was safe.”
“In a nutshell, that is exactly right.”
“Son of a gun. Now the question makes sense. I was a little tense when you asked that back there.”
“I noticed,” Randy replied.
****
The sun was going down and everyone was sitting in a semi-circle around Randy and Rachel in the canteen. They had been fed and now everyone wanted to know what they had seen.
“How did you get the Jeep to run?”
“I didn’t do anything. I tried about a zillion cars before I discovered that the older cars, ones prior to the 80s were still running. It’s just the newer cars that won’t run.”
“What about gas?”
“Lots of it out there. I siphon it from the abandoned cars along the way.”
“And you saw not a single living soul?” one of the women asked.
“Not one.”
The questions went on for almost an hour before Randy could get his questions in.
“Why have you all stayed here?” he finally got to ask.
“Why not? There is a certain safety in numbers and we have almost everything we need. We have lights, heat, food, water and medical help.”
“Medical help?”
“Yeah. This is Doctor Keller and her nurse Sarah.”
“Wow, you have a doctor and a nurse? How did you survive?” Rachel said turning to the doctor.
“Luck. Three of the shift workers were complaining of headaches. We went down to take air samples and see if it was related to underground gases. Whatever caused all of this,” the doctor said, making a sweeping motion with her hand, “Just happened while we were below. A few minutes either way and we would be gone as well.”
“Randy was right. It was the ground that saved you. All of you,” Rachel said.
“So it would seem.”
“And the other women? Why were they down in the mine?” Rachel asked.
“Why they’re miners of course.”
“No kidding?” Rachel said.
“Not at all. They hold their own quite well,” Ben said.
“You said that most of you have gone home and then came back. How far did you all go?”
“Most of us live within a few miles of the mine. We walked. Most of us said our goodbyes to our families, gathered up what we thought we might need and came back. Like I said earlier, a few have gone off on their own,” Ben replied.
“Does anyone know where other mines are?” Rand asked.
“All over the place. I reckon there are fifty or so in this area alone. Lots more across the state.”
“And West Virginia,” another man added.
“What about the military? You see hide or hair of them?” Ben asked suddenly.
“Nope. Why?”
“Well, Lewis said he thought he heard an airplane the other day.”
“That’s news to us. We haven’t heard a single sound let alone seen an airplane.”
“Do you think they caused this?” Ben asked.
“You mean the military? I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think so. I don’t think they intentionally did it if they did. I suppose it could have been an accident but something inside me says this wasn’t caused by anything our government did,” Randy told them.
“You think we had a war?”
“I honestly don’t know but I doubt it.”
“So what’s left?”
Silence hung in the air like a thick fog covering a damp marsh. No one spoke for a long time.
“So if it wasn’t an accident and wasn’t a war, what is left?” someone finally asked again.
“Little green men?” another chimed in.
“God?” said someone else.
“It wasn’t God or I sure the hell wouldn’t be here if it was. I’m not exactly God material,” another replied.
****
For the next three hours the group discussed a wide range of topics ranging from what to do next to how to find other survivors.
“Even if we do find others, what then? How do we get word out to everyone? How do we contact other countries to see if they experienced the same thing?”
“Who will be our President?”
“What about Security? Police, that kind of stuff.”
The questions were many but the answers were few. In some ways it was like starting all over as a nation and a people. It must have been a similar experience for the first people that landed on the American shores. The survivors were the new pilgrims Randy thought to himself.
The talk went on until well into the night. Finally they all started to drift away a few at a time.
“You mind if we spend the night here?” Randy asked Ben.
“Please. Feel free to join us. You are more than welcome to stay with us. It’s great to hear some news, no matter how bad, from outside this tiny compound.”
“Thanks. We can set up wherever you would like,” Randy said.
“The lady can sleep over with the other women in building B unless you want her to stay with you. I didn’t ask earlier but are you two married?”
“No. We just happened to be scuba diving together when the world came crashing down,” Randy replied.
“If you want, you can sleep in the B building and you,” Ben said, turning back to Randy, “can pick a spot in Building C. We have lots of room. The place was built to house over a hundred men at one time.”
Randy and Rachel separated for the night and it occurred to Randy that it was the first time they had really been apart since this all began.
When morning came, both Randy and Rachel were treated to a huge breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon and toast. It was a gourmet meal compared to the way they had been eating, especially breakfast.
“I had forgotten how good breakfast could be,” Rachel said, pushing her plate back.
“Delicious,” Randy agreed.
“How did you get all of the kitchen equipment to work?” Rachel asked.
“Ted is our electrician. He does all the electrical work down in the pits. He rigged the generators and changed the stoves over to propane gas. We have two huge generators that supply buildings A, B and C along with the dining area,” Ben explained.
“Where do you get the water from?”
“We have a well on site and a storage tank. Ted restored power to it and now we have decent water pressure. We even have hot water.”
“Hot water?” Rachel said, excitedly.
THE END - Book I - Of THE EVENT SERIES Page 19
